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■A STATEMENT OE TiiE BRITISH CASE 



ARNOLD BENNETT 

Aaffitr of Paris Nights^ "Zhe Old Wives' Tide,' 1 etc. 



Clf Britain loses in the great European War, 
America will be the next to risk death at the hands 
of German bureaucracy, believes Arnold Bennett. 
The German General Staff has plans for the bombard- 
ment of American ports ready, in case of need. And 
if Britain loses she will lose everything-— all the noble 
beauty for which her fine old stock stands. 



c 



So believes Bennett, so he frankly and urgently 
declares in this book. 



C s XBe 
fjiis i 
Hjlkw 
observer. 



CNot his the ranting of a petty jingoist slaying 
Prussians on paper ; nor even the imperialism of 
a Kipling. A citizen of the world, loving many coun- 
tries, he yet in this incredible crisis believes that 

Britain is fighting for world-iibert> . 



LIBERTY ! 

A STATEMENT OF 
THE BRITISH CASE 

ARNOLD BENNETT 



LIBERTY ! 

A Statement of the British Case 



BY 

ARNOLD BENNETT 

Author of "The Old Wives' Tale," "Paris Nights, 
etc., etc. 



NEW YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 






*>4 



Copyright, 1914 
By George H. Doran Company 



Copyright, 1914 
By The Curtis Publishing Company 



OCT 27 1914 ft 
©GU387214 

Qui 



I. THE SURFACE 



4> 



5> 



SS 



LIBERTY ! 

A STATEMENT OF THE 
BRITISH CASE 



The Surface 

IN 1908 Austria annexed Bosnia- 
Herzegovina. This was a violation of 
the Treaty of Berlin, 1878, and an out- 
rage upon the feelings of the inhabitants. 
The press of Europe pointed out the vio- 
lation of a treaty, but the feelings of the 
inhabitants did not make good copy. No- 
body attempted to stop the annexation. 
Russia, the one great power interested 
enough to wish to stop it, was then too 
weak to do anything effective: of which 
fact Austria was well aware. Russia 
could only sit still and look glum. The 
leader of the Austrian Nationalist party 
responsible for the annexation was the 
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the 

[7] 



LIBERTY! 

Austrian throne — a charming man whose 
married life was an idyll, but an out-and- 
out royalist and military reactionary ani- 
mated by one idea, namely, that the earth 
exists in order that the ruling classes 
may rule it. 

The Archduke took his wife to Sara- 
jevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, 
and showed himself and her triumphantly 
in the streets on the occasion of a national 
holiday, Sunday, 28th June, 1914. They 
were both murdered. Europe seemed 
more horror-struck than surprised. The 
assassination was accomplished by an 
Austrian subject in Austrian territory, 
but Austria was convinced that the plot 
had been laid at Belgrade, and later she 
announced that a secret judicial enquiry 
had proved as much. Austria accused 
the Servian Cabinet, not of complicity in 
the particular crime, but of fostering a 
general secret campaign against the co- 
hesion of Austro-Hungary, and late on 
July 23rd she delivered an ultimatum to 

[8] 



THE BRITISH CASE 

Servia, and demanded an answer for the 
next day, but one, 25th. This ultimatum 
(as to which Sir Edward Grey, the Brit- 
ish Foreign Secretary, said that he "had 
never before seen one state address to an- 
other independent state a document of so 
formidable a character") prescribed under 
ten heads exactly what Servia was to do 
if she wished to survive. The sixth head 
laid it down that the Austrian Govern- 
ment was to take part in a criminal trial 
of accessories to the archducal murder 
under Servian justice at Belgrade. 

The Viennese press of the 25th July 
showed that Vienna neither desired nor 
expected Servia to bow to the ultimatum. 
Servia did bow to the whole of the ulti- 
matum except the sixth head, and at the 
end of her reply she offered, if Austria 
was not satisfied, to arbitrate at the 
Hague. Sir Edward Grey considered 
the Servian Reply so abject that it "in- 
volved the greatest humiliation to Servia 
that he had ever seen a country undergo." 

C9] 



LIBERTY! 

The World's Greatest War in 
Ten Days 

Austria treated this Reply as a blank 
negative, and prepared to chastise Ser- 
via. Russia, now stronger, and remem- 
bering 1908, and anxious about the bal- 
ance of power in that part of the world, 
began to mobilise on the Austrian fron- 
tier. Germany announced, what all 
knew, that she would stand by Austria, 
and it was notorious that France would 
have to stand by Russia. German and 
Russian diplomats had some ornate vocal 
passages as to whether Russia was or was 
not arming on the German frontier as 
well as on the Austrian frontier. Sir 
Edward Grey endeavoured to maintain 
peace between Russia and Austria by 
suggesting a joint mediation on the part 
of Germany, France, Italy, and Eng- 
land. Germany refused — very politely, 
while asseverating her ardent desire for 
peace. Every power asseverated the same 
ardent desire for peace. Emperors thee'd 

[10] 



THE BRITISH CASE 

and thou'd each other and sent their af- 
fectionate letters to the papers. Sir Ed- 
ward Grey tried again, and offered to 
support any form of mediation that might 
commend itself to Germany. Germany 
again said No. Sir Edward Grey tried 
yet again, and offered to support any rea- 
sonable suggestion of any sort from Ger- 
many in aid of peace, even if in so doing 
he had to oppose his friends France and 
Russia. It was useless. 

The next remarkable thing was that 
some German soldiers entered Luxem- 
bourg, and some others took possession of 
a Belgian railway station; and instantly 
afterwards Belgium knew that either she 
must be smashed or she must help Ger- 
many against France by giving the Ger- 
man army a free pass through her terri- 
tory. She appealed to England against 
Germany, France having just given a 
specific promise to respect her neutrality. 

Now by the treaty of 1839 Prussia, like 
France, had positively bound herself to 

[ii] 



LIBERTY ! 

respect the independence and neutrality 
of Belgium — so positively, indeed, that 
when she was asked in 1870 to renew the 
bond she righteously answered that in 
view of the existing treaty such a renewal 
was superfluous. However, she did sol- 
emnly renew her covenant by the treaty 
of 1870. By the latter treaty, to which 
England was a party, England under- 
took, if either France or Prussia violated 
Belgian neutrality while the other re- 
spected it, to cooperate with the belliger- 
ent who respected Belgian neutrality 
against the belligerent who violated it. 

Great Britain replied to Belgium's ap- 
peal by an ultimatum to Germany. And 
Germany, having already declared war 
on Russia and France, declared war also 
on Great Britain. Within ten days of 
Austria's ultimatum to Servia, five of the 
greatest European powers, each protest- 
ing that its sole passion was peace, and 
that it hated war, were at war about the 
vital, world-shaking question — whether 

[12] 



THE BRITISH CASE 

Servia ought to let Austrian delegates go 
to Belgrade and assist judicially in the 
trial of accessories to an assassination. 
And spiders spun their webs in the empty 
halls of the Peace Palace at the Hague. 



[13] 



II. BENEATH THE SURFACE 



n 

Beneath the Surface 

THE theatrical performance thus 
given by continental diplomats de- 
ceived no one, and could not conceivably 
have deceived anyone. And it would be 
impossible to understand why the conti- 
nental Embassies and Foreign Offices 
should have troubled themselves to put up 
such an inane show, were one not ac- 
quainted — from revelations like the re- 
cently published Memoirs of Crispi — with 
the ignoble, infantile, cynical and alto- 
gether rascally mentality which character- 
ises those gaming-saloons where the hap- 
piness of nations is the stake. 

The Austro-Servian difficulty was the 
occasion, not the cause, of the European 
war. It was not even one of the causes. 
It was like a match, picked out of a box 
of matches by an incendiary, to set light 
to a house previously well soaked in kero- 

[17] 



LIBERTY! 

sene. To study the half-burnt match, to 
stick it under a microscope and differen- 
tiate it from other matches, would be a 
supreme exercise in absurdity. 

Let us go back a little, but not too far 
back. In 1875 Germany, perceiving that 
France was making a marvellous recov- 
ery from the catastrophe of 1870, had the 
idea of going to war with her again at 
once and so finally destroying her as a 
great nation. This infamous and wanton 
scheme was scotched by the opposition of 
England and Russia. It has stamped Ger- 
many with dishonour for a hundred years, 
and it showed clearly the spirit of the Ger- 
man autocracy based on military power. 
Bismarck, the mighty villain who planned 
it, improved his theory of morals some- 
what in old age, but in due season he was 
turned off; and altogether one may say 
that France since 1875 has never been free 
from the threat of another German in- 
vasion. After a long period of isolation 
and danger France made a military al- 

[18] 



THE BRITISH CASE 

liance with Russia; she was driven to it 
by the continual menace of Germany; it 
was the best thing she could do. 

Meanwhile the cult of the German 
army grew, and the German military 
caste gradually discovered what a mar- 
vellous instrument it possessed in the Ger- 
man people — a people docile, ingenuous, 
studious, industrious, idealistic, and thor- 
ough; but above all docile and thorough. 
German commerce increased astound- 
ingly; the energy of the race seemed 
illimitable; its achievements in sheer civ- 
ilisation became brilliant; for example, 
the municipal government of cities such 
as Frankfort is of a quality unequalled in 
the world. The autocracy availed itself 
of all the talents shown, and in particular 
it exploited German docility so ruthlessly 
that the German Social-Democratic party 
of protest passed from infancy to full 
manhood in a decade and speedily devel- 
oped into the most powerful section of the 
Reichstag. To understand how the mili- 

[19] 



LIBERTY! 

tary caste dealt with the Reichstag it is 
necessary to read von Bulow's artless 
book, "Imperial Germany." Von Biilow 
was Imperial Chancellor for eight years, 
and he records the monstrous chicane of 
the military caste against the people with 
true German ingenuousness. 

The people were informed by the mili- 
tary caste of the unique grandeur of their 
army, and of the indomitable resolve of 
the rulers and of God never to let Ger- 
many be crushed by her enemies. The 
best qualities of the race were turned to 
evil, and its worst quality, a certain mal- 
adroit arrogance, was appealed to. The 
army and God were more and more the 
staple subjects of official speeches; and 
the result has been a national obsession of 
such completeness that ladies have to take 
to the gutter in order to make room for 
the swagger of Prussian officers three 
abreast on the pavements of enlightened 
German cities, and the Kaiser himself has 
closely fraternised with the sinister Krupp 
family. 

[20] 



THE BRITISH CASE 

The Preachers of Conquest 

An immense literature of bellicosity 
flourished around the obsession. In this 
literature the indomitable resolve of Ger- 
many not to be crushed, and the inten- 
tions of army (helped by a new navy) 
are set out with thoroughness; although 
no space is wasted in giving details of the 
alleged disgraceful attempts to crush 
Germany. No other nation in the world 
has ever produced a war literature com- 
parable to Germany's ; no other nation has 
said one hundredth part as much about 
the inevitableness of war. 

The notorious specimens of this litera- 
ture are too well known to require de- 
scription. I will, however, briefly refer 
to von Bernhardi's "Germany and the 
Next War," not because it is a good book 
even of its kind, but because it is the most 
popular of the kind. This ingenuous vol- 
ume, in which a staggering simplicity of 
mind is united to a total lack of imagina- 
tion, a miraculous misunderstanding of 

[21] 



LIBERTY! 

politics, and a touching ignorance of hu- 
man nature, is explicitly a disparagement 
of peace and peace-propaganda and an 
advocacy of war. It proceeds from 
strange assumptions (as that the British 
Army "may be left out of account in a 
continental war") to still stranger con- 
clusions (as that all nations and individ- 
uals except Germany and Germans will 
in the end act according to the dictates 
of the lowest and stupidest cunning, to 
the final glory of Germany). The most 
ingenuous and significant chapter in the 
work is the second, entitled "The Duty 
to Make War." Here von Bernhardi 
naively quotes the aged Bismarck's re- 
peated clear declaration in the Reichstag 
that "no one should ever take upon him- 
self the immense responsibility of inten- 
tionally bringing about a war," and then 
states that Bismarck did not mean what 
he said, and that what he did mean is 
difficult to discover! All this chapter is 
an attempt to justify the deliberate pro- 

[22] 



THE BRITISH CASE 

yoking of war for an unavowed end. Note 
this sentence, which is worthy of italics: 
"We must not think merely of external 
foes who compel us to fight — a war may 
seem to be forced upon a statesman by the 
state of home affairs." 

Von Bernhardi, being in this book a bit 
of a philosopher and dealer in general 
principles, does not outline actual schemes 
of offence; but other military propagan- 
dists do. Among these not the least in- 
teresting is General von Edelsheim, a 
member of the General Staff of the Ger- 
man army, whose memorandum ("Opera- 
tions upon the sea") as to the proper 
way to defeat the United States, now so 
justly popular in America, could only 
have appeared with the approval of the 
Kaiser. Von Edelsheim — one may be 
permitted to recall — begins by stating 
that Germany cannot meekly submit to 
"the attacks of the United States" for 
ever, and that she must ask herself how 
she can "impose her will." He proves that 

[23] 



LIBERTY! 

a combined action of army and navy will 
be required for this purpose, and that 
after about four weeks from the com- 
mencement of hostilities German trans- 
ports could begin to land large bodies of 
troops at different points simultaneously. 
Then, "by interrupting their communica- 
tions, by destroying all buildings serving 
the State, commerce, and defence, by tak- 
ing away all material for war and trans- 
port, and lastly by levying heavy contri- 
butions, we should be able to inflict dam- 
age on the United States." Thus in New 
York the new City Hall, the Metropoli- 
tan Museum, and the Pennsylvania Rail- 
way Station, not to mention the Metro- 
politan Tower, would go the way of Lou- 
vain, while New York business men would 
gather in Wall Street humbly to hand 
over the dollars amid the delightful 
strains of "The Watch on the Rhine," 
the applause of Professor Miinsterburg. 



[24] 



THE BRITISH CASE 

Effect of the Russian Peasant 

The grandiose German military legend, 
fostered by the German military caste and 
in turn by repercussion exciting that caste 
to a fury of arrogance, was, beyond any 
reasonable argument, the father of the 
present war. Its mother was the fecun- 
dity of the Russian peasant. In the last 
thirty years the population of Russia has 
increased by fifty millions; in the last 
twenty years it has increased by as much 
as the total population of France. By 
consequence the Russian conscript army 
and Russian military power have simi- 
larly increased. 

The German military caste had for 
years on its own printed showing wanted 
a war, and it had infected much of Ger- 
many with the itch to fight. It had 
wanted a war, not merely in order to show 
off its unparalleled war-machine in world- 
conquest, but also because of "the state 
of home affairs" mentioned by von Bern- 
hardt The largest party in the Reich- 

[25] 



LIBERTY! 

stag was its opponent, and that party was 
growing rapidly and continuously, a fact 
not surprising to anyone familiar with 
the anti-democratic antics of the caste in 
influencing social legislation. . . . And 
there was the Russian army, increasing 
and increasing and increasing, by reason 
of the dreadful fecundity of the Russian 
peasant ! 

The instinct of self-protection ranged 
itself with the desire for conquest. In- 
deed, it is possible that the caste was a 
year or two ago struck by a sort of panic 
in contemplating the growth of Russia — 
not only in numbers but also in intelli- 
gence. The anti-Russian movement in 
Germany became a major phenomenon. 
Like all the propaganda of the caste, in 
Europe as well as in America, it has 
had its University champion. Professor 
Schiemann has been, and is, the acknowl- 
edged anti-Russian professor, and his 
operations have been marked by the 
usual German ingenuousness. In Lon- 

[26] 



THE BRITISH CASE 

don last year he said openly, and with all 
the authoritativeness of his position, that 
a war with Russia, and therefore a gen- 
eral European war, must occur within 
eighteen months. It has occurred. The 
military caste had waited forty-four 
years; it could wait no longer. It could 
no more stop the Russian army from 
growing than it could stop its hair from 
growing. In a year the new three-years' 
conscript system would be in operation 
in France, and the French army corre- 
spondingly improved. A pretext for war 
was an urgent necessity, and the diffi- 
culty of finding it was not lessened by 
the fact that nobody whatever had emit- 
ted the slightest threat against Germany. 

The Scheme 

Then came the murder of the Austrian 
heir. The occasion seemed ideal, for it 
enabled the caste to point out to German 
and Austrian thrones that God was ap- 

[27] 



LIBERTY! 

parently neglecting His chosen brothers- 
in-arms, and that they had better take 
firm action on their own behalf. That 
the Kaiser was constantly hoodwinked by 
the caste is shown by the experiences of 
the late General Grierson as military at- 
tache at Berlin. General Grierson was 
so sickened by the atmosphere of intrigue 
in which the Court moved that he refused 
ever to go to Berlin again. On the whole 
the caste must have been too much for 
the Kaiser; nevertheless, the Kaiser, who 
would often very annoyingly flirt with 
peace, had always to be managed, and the 
murder of a Teutonic heir-apparent en- 
abled the caste to get at him on his dynas- 
tic side. Circumstances appeared to be 
favourable for a coup. The incompetence 
of the French Government in military ad- 
ministration had just been publicly ad- 
mitted in the French Senate, and was 
indeed well known. And the character- 
istic political simplicity of the caste saw 
good signs everywhere. Russia would be 

[28] 



THE BRITISH CASE 

in the midst of a revolution, and would 
also muddle her mobilisation. Krupp had 
deliberately broken his contract with the 
Belgian Government for big guns, and 
Belgian forts therefore could not hold out. 
Moreover, Belgium would never seriously 
attempt to resist Germany. America 
would be sympathetic, because of its hor- 
ror of Russian barbarism. Italy at worst 
would be benevolently neutral. And 
Great Britain would be neutral, partly 
because of violent civil war from end 
to end of Ireland, partly because of dis- 
affection in Egypt, India, South Africa 
and other places, and partly from self- 
interest. 

The German and Austrian branches of 
the military caste worked in secret to- 
gether. And when they had reached a 
decision — and not before, according to 
my information — the German Imperial 
Chancellor and the German Foreign Sec- 
retary were permitted to learn the in- 
wardness of the state of affairs. An im- 

[29] 



LIBERTY! 

possible ultimatum was sent to Servia, 
and the thing was done. The fall on the 
Bourses, before the delivery of the Ser- 
vian Reply, showed that the supreme 
financial magnates had been "put wise." 
Every Embassy knew. All diplomacy 
was futile, and most of it was odiously 
hypocritical. Sir Edward Grey alone in 
Europe strove against the irrevocable. 
With the most correct urbanity, Germany 
frustrated him at each move. Neither 
France nor Italy desired aught but peace. 
Whether or not Russia desired war, I 
cannot say; but it is absolutely certain 
that Germany and Austria desired war, 
though at the final moment Austria 
quailed. They have got war, and more 
than they expected. 

Great Britain in the Fray 

The one genuine manifestation, in the 
last days, among German diplomats and 
war-lords and their hired journalists, was 
surprise at the fighting attitude of Great 

[30] 



THE BRITISH CASE 

Britain. The hollow periods of the lead- 
ing articles in the venal press by which 
the caste influences its huge victim were 
inspired for once with a genuine emotion 
— that of startled anger. And here is the 
surpassing proof of the fundamental art- 
lessness of the German official mind, so 
self-satisfied in its cunning. 

It is scarcely conceivable that Germany 
should have expected British statesmen, 
fully informed of the whole situation, to 
remain neutral when Germany attacked 
France. Yet Germany expected just 
that — nay, counted firmly upon it. I say 
that Germany counted upon it, for the 
simple reason that her plan of campaign 
against France included the invasion of 
Belgium, which invasion was not only an 
appalling and inexcusable crime — the 
foulest crime against civilisation since 
Napoleon — but a shameless violation of 
a treaty to which England was a party, 
and a direct menace to England herself. 
Germany's intention to violate Belgium 

[si] 



LIBERTY! 

was no secret. She never tried to conceal 
it. Belgium was only a little country and 
could not invade back. Belgium knew 
of the intention against her, and several 
years ago began to take defensive meas- 
ures accordingly. France was well aware 
of it ; so was Great Britain. Great Brit- 
ain was under a clear treaty obligation 
to Belgium. In Germany, by public ad- 
mission, treaties do not count, and inter- 
national honour is an absurdity. Ger- 
many, however, is not yet the whole world, 
and in England a treaty still counts. 

Let me be sincere, and admit that 
Great Britain had a still stronger motive 
in taking arms — that of self-preservation. 
The arch-propagandist and strategist, 
Treitschke, the leader of the whole school 
of German bellicose writers, followed by 
his flock, had laid it down that Germany's 
world-scheme for the spreading of her 
culture was to dispose of Russia and 
France first, and then to smash Great 
Britain. 

[32] 



THE BRITISH CASE 

It follows, therefore, that these simple 
Germans expected Great Britain to wait 
until her turn came. If Great Britain 
had sat still and Germany had beaten 
France once more (whether she defeated 
Russia or not), it is a certitude that Bel- 
gium would have seen the last of her 
independence, that Holland would have 
been swallowed at a second gulp, and 
Denmark at a third ; and probably a piece 
of the northwest coast of France would 
have rounded off the beauteous territorial 
perfection of the German Empire. The 
entire European coast from Memel to 
Calais would have been Germany's jump- 
ing-off ground for the grand attack on 
England. In joining in this war Great 
Britain had nothing to gain, but she had 
something to keep — her word to Belgium, 
and she had simply everything to lose by 
standing out of it. Hence she is in it. 

True, she is supporting the alleged bar- 
barism of Russia against the alleged cul- 
ture of Germany; the respective values of 

[33] 



LIBERTY! 

this "barbarism" and this "culture" pos- 
terity will determine. But it may be said 
here that, so far as England is concerned, 
Russia is an accident. England is sup- 
porting the most highly civilised nation 
and the most peaceful great power on the 
continent of Europe — France. For my- 
self, as an artist, I have to state that I 
have learned as much from the art of 
Russia as from the art of any other coun- 
try. I may have illusions about the renas- 
cence of Russia. Russia may be still a 
bloodthirsty savage and Germany may 
be the knight of the Holy Grail. Every- 
thing is possible. But Russia happens to 
be France's ally, and for Great Britain 
there is no going behind that basic, unal- 
terable fact. Great Britain did not im- 
pose on France the Russian alliance. On 
the other hand, Germany, by her endless 
bullying, emphatically did impose on 
France the Russian alliance. Germany's 
attitude towards France rendered it im- 
perative that France should be able to 

[34] 



THE BRITISH CASE 

count on the co-operation of a power with 
a great army. Outside the Triple Alli- 
ance, Russia was the only such power. It 
is the intolerable arrogance of Germany, 
and nothing else, that has brought into 
existence the coalition against the Teuton 
Empires, and the remarkable character of 
the coalition is yet a further proof of the 
tremendous resentment which that arro- 
gance has aroused. 



[35] 



III. A NEW CONCEPTION OF WAR 



Ill 

A New Conception of War 

BUT Great Britain in taking arms 
for Belgium's, France's and her own 
preservation against Germany's repeated 
and explicit menaces, has also taken arms 
against the whole conception of war as 
preached and exemplified by its latest and 
most terrific exponent. The Kaiser him- 
self, head of the German army, and many 
of his responsible officers, had fairly 
warned us that Germany's notion of war 
was a new and larger notion than any 
hitherto known, a notion which added all 
the resources of science to the thievish- 
ness and the sanguinary cruelty of prime- 
val man. War, when they made it, was 
to be ruthless to the last extreme. And 
as an earnest of their sincerity, they 
showed us for many years in peace time 
how surpassingly inhuman they could be 
to their own conscripts. Germany has 

[89] 



LIBERTY! 

kept her word. She has changed the 
meaning of war. She began the vast al- 
tercation by a cynical and overwhelming 
wickedness garnished with the most nau- 
seating hypocrisy. To gain a preliminary 
advantage over France, she ruined a 
whole nation. She had said she would 
do it, and she did it. 

And while doing it she has broken 
every one of the principal "Regulations 
Respecting the Laws and Customs of 
War on Land," which she had solemnly 
signed at The Hague in 1899. She has 
not broken them once, but again and 
again, in pursuance of a definite policy. 
As regards the regulations for war at sea, 
the German representative at The Hague 
in 1907, in response to a British proposal 
to prohibit floating mines, declared that 
"the dictates of conscience and good-feel- 
ing would afford better security than 
written stipulations." . . . Ah! . . . 
The Hague gathering accordingly left 
this particular matter to the dictates of 

[40] 



THE BRITISH CASE 

conscience and good feeling, and many 
other matters also. 

"Conscience and Good Feeling" 

The Hague Conference, for instance, 
made no rules as to the use of the press, 
and when the German Press Bureau 
caused to be inserted in a serious news- 
paper like the Frankfurter Zeitung a 
long speech by a prominent English 
statesman (John Burns) which was pro- 
German, but which was also entirely im- 
aginary, it broke no Hague rule. And 
it would be difficult for the Belgian wo- 
men and children who were often driven 
before German regiments as a screen 
against Belgian fire to quote any Hague 
rule specifically in their favour. 

Nor did The Hague Conference pre- 
scribe the conditions of travel for non- 
combatant prisoners of war. So that 
when German soldiers packed twelve hun- 
dred male citizens of Louvain — engineers, 
merchants, lawyers; living and civilised 

[41] 



LIBERTYl 

men just like you and me — into a cattle- 
train at the rate of ninety to a horse- 
truck, standing jammed and immovable 
in several inches of animal filth, and shut 
the trucks up and kept the victims impris- 
oned without any food or any drink dur- 
ing a fifty- four hour journey to Cologne, 
and then turned them out to be baited by 
the populace in the Exhibition Gardens, 
and then after the baiting gave them each 
a small piece of black bread, and then 
drove them — the sane and the insane — 
into another train, and for two days and 
three nights during another train- journey 
again kept them imprisoned without food 
and drink, and then loosed them (all ex- 
cept the suicides) into a turnip field at 
Malines and told them that they were 
free — even the Belgian males, like their 
women and children, could not easily re- 
fer German jurists to The Hague Con- 
ference, for The Hague Conference had 
left such details to the dictates of con- 
science and good feeling. 

[*2] 



THE BRITISH CASE 

Let us note in passing that after the 
Louvain episode, and after Belgian stank 
from end to end with the odour of corpses 
and of stale powder, the Lokalanzeiger, 
one of the most conscientious and right- 
feeling newspapers in Germany, referred 
to Belgium as "this quarry, which has 
been laid low by the German army and 
which now belongs whole and undivided 
to the German people." And a Major- 
General, in the same paper, dotted the 
i's thus : "All Belgium must become Ger- 
man, not in order that a few million ras- 
cals may have the honour of belonging to 
the German Empire, but so that we may 
have her excellent harbours, and be able 
to hold the knife under the nose of per- 
fidious, cowardly England." 

War Made Perfect 

The story goes that a few weeks ago, 
when a Belgian princess personally re- 
monstrated with a certain German officer- 
prince about some outrage or other, the 

[43] 



LIBERTY ! 

latter shrugged his shoulders and replied 
in excellent French: "Que voulez-vous? 
C'est la guerre." 

It is. 

It may not be magnificent, but it is war. 
It is what we have been warned to ex- 
pect. It is war completed and made 
perfect. 

The German military caste is thor- 
ough. On the one hand it organises its 
transcendently efficient transport, it sends 
its armies into the field with both grave- 
diggers and postmen, it breaks treaties, 
it spreads lies through the press, it lays 
floating mines, it levies indemnities, it 
forces foreign time to correspond with its 
own, and foreign newspapers to appear 
in the German language; and on the 
other hand, it fires from the shelter of 
the white flag and the Red Cross flag, it 
kills wounded, even its own, and shoots 
its own drowning sailors in the water; it 
hides behind women and children, it tor- 

[44] 



THE BRITISH CASE 

tures its captives, and when it gets really 
excited it destroys irreplaceable beauty. 

These achievements, which have been re- 
sponsibly and utterly verified, which will 
become historical, and which I feel sure 
no member of the General Staff worthy 
of his post would wish to deny — undoubt- 
edly correspond to a logical conception 
of war. The conception is based up- 
on the great principle that while a war 
is being fought out, every other consid- 
eration whatever must be subordinated to 
the consideration of victory. War must 
be its own law and morality, and the high- 
est virtue is to win. Such a conception of 
war is quite comprehensible, and it can 
be supported by argument; indeed, it has 
been supported by argument — for exam- 
ple, by the Imperial Chancellor in the 
Reichstag. It is a conception which must 
assuredly triumph by its own logic if war 
is to continue as an institution for regu- 
lating human affairs. 

[45] 



LIBERTY! 

"Please May I Exist V 

The one flaw in it is that we do not 
care for it, and we will not have it. We 
don't want to argue about it. We want 
to fight about it. And we are fighting 
about it. Said one of the greatest Amer- 
icans, "War is hell." The epigram was 
a masterpiece of conciseness, and the sum- 
mer of 1914 has demonstrated its accu- 
racy far more thoroughly than ever. We 
consider that war, in addition to being 
hell, is idiotic. We declare it to be ab- 
surd that half the world should be over- 
run wth ruin in order that a great race 
may prove its greatness. We admit that 
in the process of evolution rivalries be- 
tween nations are not merely unavoidable, 
but excellent in themselves. What we 
deny is the assumption of the German 
military caste that these rivalries must 
necessarily take the form of homicidal 
war. We maintain that artistic, scientific 
and industrial Germany has superbly 
proved during the last forty years that 

[46] 



THE BRITISH CASE 

non-homicidal struggles against other 
nations may be waged and may be car- 
ried to brilliant success, without blood- 
shed, without dishonour, without shame, 
without weeping. And though we have 
to acknowledge defeat in certain of those 
struggles, we wish for nothing better than 
that such struggles should continue. 

We are convinced that our new ideal 
is a finer one than the ideal of the Ger- 
man military caste, that the two ideals 
cannot flourish together, and therefore 
that one of them must go down. If Ger- 
many triumphs, her ideal (the word is 
seldom off her lips) will envelope the 
earth, and every race will have to kneel 
and whimper to her, "Please, may I 
exist?" And slavery will be re-born; for 
under the German ideal every male citi- 
zen is a private soldier, and every pri- 
vate soldier is an abject slave — and the 
caste already owns five millions of them. 
We have a silly, sentimental, illogical ob- 
jection to being enslaved. We reckon 

jo 
[47] 



LIBERTY! 

liberty — the right of every individual to 
call his soul his own — as the most glorious 
end. It is for liberty we are fighting. 
We have lived in alarm, and liberty has 
been jeopardised too long. 



[48] 



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